A 43-year-old man has been seriously injured after being attacked by a shark while surfing off central Japan, and officials warned local beachgoers to be alert.
Tsuyoshi Takahashi, an off-duty lifeguard, was rushed to hospital on Sunday afternoon after the shark sank its teeth into his left arm some 30 meters offshore, a fire department official said.
The accident occurred while Takahashi was surfing with his colleagues in the Pacific off the Atsumi peninsula in Aichi, some 250 kilometers west of Tokyo, a spot well-known for its big waves.
''He was seriously injured and got 30 stitches to the wound, but there is no threat to his life,'' said the official, adding: ''We are calling on other surfers to be on the alert against sharks.''
Japan's long coastline is home to a variety of sharks, but attacks on people are relatively rare. The species of shark involved on Sunday was not known.--AFP